More 2012: Warren's Native American story continues

MASSACHUSETTS: This story has more legs… “US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has said she was unaware that Harvard Law School had been promoting her purported Native American heritage until she read about it in a newspaper several weeks ago,” the Boston Globe reports. “But for at least six straight years during Warren’s tenure, Harvard University reported in federally mandated diversity statistics that it had a Native American woman in its senior ranks at the law school. According to both Harvard officials and federal guidelines, those statistics are almost always based on the way employees describe themselves.”

MISSOURI: “Sen. Claire McCaskill is set to launch a new television ad across Missouri on Memorial Day that emphasizes her record on veterans issues,” Roll Call reports. “The spot highlights the Democrat’s work to address mismanagement at Arlington National Cemetery and seeks to bolster her credibility as a government watchdog. Visuals of headlines about the scandal at the hallowed burial ground fade on and off the screen over B-roll of gravestones.” But: “National Republicans slammed the ad and accused the vulnerable incumbent of attempting to use the sacrifices of military veterans to score political points.”

PENNSYLVANIA: Problems for the GOP in state politics… Republican Gov. Tom Corbett replaced his chief of staff, appointing him to a judgeship, but it could be the result of political pressure and calls for change. The Philadelphia Inquirer: “Ward's departure from his $154,000 post comes as Corbett has faced increasing pressure to address what some in top state Republican circles believe is the governor's growing image problem. The Inquirer reported Thursday that Corbett's top political advisers, supporters, and fund-raisers had been agitating for him to make changes to his senior staff. Next week, a small group of Republican Party heavyweights, known as the governor's ‘kitchen cabinet,’ is to meet with Corbett in Harrisburg. Speaking on condition of anonymity, four people familiar with plans for the meeting said the ‘kitchen’ group wants to air concerns - such as a feeling that the administration had not effectively sold Corbett's agenda to the public, and that the governor had paid a price in popularity.”

TEXAS: “The story line on the Republican Senate race in Texas is a now familiar one: A veteran politician supported by the GOP establishment is challenged by a young insurgent backed by national conservative groups,” the AP writes. “In this distinctly Texas episode in the saga for control of the Senate, David Dewhurst is the reserved, self-made millionaire and lieutenant governor facing off against Ted Cruz, the feisty son of a Cuban exile who calls himself ‘a proven fighter for liberty because his family knows what it means to lose it.’” Texas’ primary is Tuesday.